Diamond in the Tower
by Laryna6
Summary: A pearl and a quartz are sent to bring a human before Golden Diamond. This would be easier if the human didn't have a gem weapon made of shattered gems. Noblesse/Steven Universe fusion.


_This is a giftfic for a friend I know in real life, set in qdeanna's Noblesse/Steven Universe fusion 'verse (art can be found on her tumblr).Short version: nobles are gems, werewolves are probably crystal gems (independent, supposed to be living quietly among humans), the noble Lords are diamonds…_

 _I would be very happy to amend this if someone has a better idea for what gem the Landegre should be. The Ru clan fit quartz warriors better, but they could be different varieties?_

 _The Kertia, however, are ninja pearls. It's just too perfect, especially with Ragar Kertia's crush on the Previous Lord._

 _How many times must I do AU versions of these two characters' first meeting before I am satisfied? Who knows._

 _SU and Noblesse both seem like monster of the week/monster mash shows at first, with comedy derived from aliens dealing with modern human things like cookie cats and electronic door locks, but turn out to have deep myth arcs and complex backstory that's revealed slowly over the course of the series. They both have three-dimensional characters._

 _For SU fans, Noblesse's Frankenstein is a very handsome school principal & mad scientist who kneels before Rai, calls him Master and will tear anyone who insults him apart with a weapon made of the screaming souls of the dead. WTF exactly is up with him and if he used to be/still is evil is up there with what exactly is up with Rose Quartz and was _she _evil. This is the gemverse version of a flashback scene 242 chapters into the webtoon, so I apologize if it doesn't make much sense even if you_ have _watched the anime OVA that summarizes the first arc of the webtoon_.

* * *

Pearls were soft, easy to grind into dust. After fighting other gem warriors Frankenstein thought he could handle the Pearl clan leader, if Sand Spear didn't devour him first. Sand Spear grinding a clan leader's gem to pieces would add to its power as those shards became part of the living gem weapon's mass along with the pseudo-gems of converted humans, their souls screaming for revenge as they battered each other to pieces in their rage. That might give him a chance against the Quartz clan leader, even if their quartz was one of the harder gems to erode. Not that there were more than one or two in Sand Spear – that clan was also very hard to corrupt, so few of them had merited execution by shattering them to gain shards for Sand Spear.

Fighting the two of them at once however… Right now they were trying to catch him to bring him to Golden Diamond (that was easy to deduce, no one but the diamond could give a mission to two clan leaders), but the instant they realized that he was a real threat, an enemy who wasn't only capable of 'poofing' them but would shatter them as well, they'd stop going easy on him.

Then the Pearl clan leader summoned her gem weapon.

It wasn't as though he hadn't expected this, but it made him grin to see even a pearl acknowledge that a human had gained enough power that a clan leader would need their gem weapon to fight him. "When else will I have a chance to use that crazy thing?" He held his hand up to the sky. "Come to me, Sand Spear," he called, and an opalescent cloud appeared overhead, colored lightning arcing within it. Glimmers of light floated down from it, hovering around him. He willed them to form into a double-headed spear.

' _Ugh,_ ' he thought, annoyed. ' _I've had to monologue just to buy myself time to try to calm this thing down, but all I can do is hold on. It's already trying to consume me.'_ The shards within it desperate for completion, they tried for any facsimile of a gem they could find, but him they _hated._

And then the quartz just had to state the obvious, as though Frankenstein didn't know that Sand Spear was trying to wear him away that very moment.

He flung his head back and laughed. "You gems are so arrogant. Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I haven't realized that because I'm a foolish human who would do anything to gain power? If giving myself to this cursed weapon is the only way to fight you, then I'll force you to see that humans are not weak!"

 _Note to self,_ he thought soon after the battle began. _Clan leaders are even stronger than I thought._ And the quartz wasn't even getting involved yet. This was the _pearl!_ They were supposed to be delicate and ornamental, that was why their combat style revolved around going unseen because they couldn't win in an open fight, but the skin-tight garb this one wore under her coat showed off muscle. Long hair was a disadvantage in battle, but this pearl was practical enough to tie it back in a ponytail. Most of it – there were two locks draped to frame her chest. She'd summoned over a dozen illusions of herself to swarm him while she moved forward for her own attack in their shadow. He'd managed to scratch up her clothing, but there was no sign he was getting any closer to destroying her body.

And she was motivated, fighting him with all her skill even though he was a human. Of course a pearl would be motivated. Any gem would be on a mission from a diamond, but pearls were designed to be devoted to stronger gems – that part of his intelligence, at least, might still apply to this clan leader.

And now Sand Spear sent darts into his arm, swarming his veins to destroy his body from the inside and grating away at his nerves. Even with his regeneration derived from gem healing powers he didn't know how much longer he could last. Desperately fighting them off, he lost touch from the outside world.

The next thing he knew, he regained consciousness to see the Pearl clan leader there, but instead of attacking with her twin daggers, she said, almost apologetically, "Is this what you wanted us to see? A human being devoured by a dark power… Is this going to prove to anyone that humans are not weak?"

Refusal to let them look down on his species gave him the strength to force Sand Spear back into the mass of shards in the back of his hand he'd summoned it from… just in time to be hit in the back by the charging Quartz clan leader's lance.

After a direct hit from that he wasn't in condition to fight. He kept them busy telling them things _they should know already_ about how lesser gems were throwing their weight around and taking power over humans to give himself some time to recover.

He wasn't surprised that they fell for 'look behind you.' Most gems were loyal to the diamonds and had no reason to lie, ever. The fact that gems didn't suspect each other of criminal tendencies made it child's play for their criminals to escape detection even among the gems assigned to patrol the human world and be sure that no gems were committing crimes there.

Right now, he needed to find a place to hide. He could pass for a gem, and with time even generate one of their solid holograms to conceal his true appearance. For that, he needed cover and a group of gems so they wouldn't question one more appearing.

A towering white spire was exactly the kind of place one would find gems.

Except there weren't any. The halls were empty of everything, even robot servitors. No furniture, no decorations… the first room he found that wasn't empty held human clothing, of all things. Five white shirts. It was suspicious when he needed a new shirt – there was gem technology that let them know what a human wanted so they could use that to manipulate them – but he might as well take advantage of it.

Thankfully the shirt didn't vanish when he left the room.

Awhile later, wandering the halls, he finally came across a gem. Her human form had short black hair, red eyes and a slim body. Her hands and forehead were bare, but he couldn't see her gem in either of those locations, so he didn't have any evidence of what it was. Still, she was delicate and pretty enough that she might be a pearl… and wearing one of those white shirts.

"That shirt…"

"Pardon?"

"You're wearing my shirt."

So a pearl then – and valued enough for her Mistress to bring her back gifts from the human world even if otherwise they kept the building Spartan. "My apologies, I'm new here…" He sheepishly laughed it off, letting the gem take the tone as an apology.

Silently, the pearl turned and walked away. There! A gem set in her upper back, he could see the outline through the cloth. It seemed to have facets, so not a pearl then?

He kept searching the spire, still finding nothing but empty rooms until he chanced upon the not-Pearl again. Why was she staring out a first floor window? There were better views higher up.

"You're still wearing my shirt," she said to him, turning away from the window.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't find anything else."

She raised her hand and the fabric of the shirt vanished into a gridlike light pattern, only to be replaced by his preferred suit.

What kind of gem had _that_ ability and how could he gain it for himself? He'd never have to worry about running out of clothing thanks to his enemies getting in a lucky shot again.

He was pondering the logistics of capturing this gem for experimentation when the two clan leaders entered the room – damn, they'd caught up with him.

Instead of securing him immediately, they genuflected before the strange gem. This must be a very high-caste gem, but it wasn't too suspicious – his pursuers might be the leaders of all the pearls and quartzes, but a high-caste gem was still a high-caste gem. "Cadis Etrama di Raizel," they greeted her.

Golden Diamond had ordered that all gems on Earth choose personal names – one of the eccentric diamond's many whims, along with ending the Crystal Gem rebellion by trading another world to Pink Diamond so that she could study Earth's native sentient species. Usually those names were simpler, but this name might be function related. His best guess at the meaning of 'Cadis Etrama di Raizel' was 'Supreme Judge of the Rose' – a Zircon?

When the dark-haired gem sent the clan leaders away and they went, he thought it was something to do with a zircon's jurisdiction over criminals.

He should have remembered what allowed him to deduce the mission of the clan leaders earlier that night – only a diamond could give an order to two clan leaders.

He should have remembered his study of gemology and realized that if cubic zirconium was one of the gems easiest to mistake for diamond, didn't that imply it was possible to mistake a diamond for cubic zirconium?

* * *

 _So Rai is Blood Diamond – if you want to shatter other gems, you'd want to use a diamond – but destroying other gems will wear her away until she's fragile enough to shatter._

 _Rai is male-presenting in qdeanna's art – since gems are female-presenting and that's the default Rai is female presenting when he and Frankenstein first meet, but eventually changes to male-presenting because there are several indications in the webtoon that Frankenstein pays no attention to female beauty but does notice male attractiveness, so. 'Gems are supernaturally beautiful women?' whatever. 'Rai now looks like a handsome young man' cue keysmashing. In both this and a more canon 'verse I like the idea that the pairing is non-binary/male._


End file.
